How often are student assessments done?

The frequency is determined by the AFT contract. The usual schedule is briefly outlined below, please refer to the contract for more details.

Tenured faculty
(Section 8.44) Student assessments are to be done during one quarter of the second and fourth years of your five-year cycle. The dean and the instructor shall mutually agree on the date the assessment will be administered.

Full-time Temporary faculty
(Section 8.51) Student assessment are to be done during one quarter of the first and third years of your five-year cycle. The dean and the instructor shall mutually agree on the date the assessment will be administered.

Associate faculty
(Section 8.60) All part-time faculty shall have student assessments performed during the 5th or 6th week of the 1st quarter of employment. All part-time faculty will also have student assessments performed during the 2nd and 3rd quarter of employment.

All part-time faculty shall have student assessments performed every other (alternating) quarter employed after the 3rd quarter of employment until receiving Senior Associate status.

Senior Associates shall have student assessment performed one quarter per year.

Everyone
You may voluntarily have a student assessment done during any quarter you’d like. If the assessment is not required by the contract then the instructor will receive all copies of the results reports. Results reports are NOT sent to deans or HR if the assessment is voluntary. However, the instructor is free to share the results with the dean if s/he chooses.

What about the typo on my Faculty Info Form?

If any of the information that is pre-printed on your Faculty Information Form is incorrect, please feel free to correct it. Use red pens or highlighters or anything that will draw attention to the correction. Your form will then be re-printed before your results are processed.

When and how will I receive the results?

The results reports are distributed via campus mail after the quarter has ended. If you need your results to be sent in a different manner, please contact studentassessments@everettcc.edu by the date grades are due.

The IR Office mails the forms to Kansas to be processed by the IDEA Center. There is approximately 5 weeks between the day the forms leave campus and the day the results are ready for campus distribution. The ONLY way to expedite an evaluation is to make sure it is turned in before the 9th week of the quarter. Here is the mailing schedule:

First batch - early: Completed forms turned into the Institutional Research Office or Mailbox #53 by the end of the 8th week of class will be mailed at this time. These results are expected back soon after grades are due. PROBATIONERS – your tenure committees want your classes to be sent in this first batch!

Second batch - late: To be included in this batch, forms must be turned in to the Institutional Research Office or Mailbox #53 by the end of business on the Tuesday after finals. Please insure that your completed forms are turned in as promptly as possible. If your forms are not included in this mailing, they will be sent with the first batch of the next quarter.

The students’ forms will be returned to the instructors with the results report so that written comments may be reviewed.

Who else receives my results?

The Institutional Research office distributes three copies of your results. One copy goes to you, one copy goes to your dean and one copy is sent to HR for inclusion in your personnel folder.

If additional copies are needed for tenure committees, etc., your dean’s office will provide them. The Institutional Research office does not retain copies of the results reports.

If your student assessment is voluntary, the results will be sent only to you. You may share the results with your dean if you choose. (A voluntary student assessment is one that the instructor requests. It is not required by the faculty contract.)

What questions are the students asked?

When is the best time to administer the surveys to students?

The IDEA Student Form measures, among other things, student progress on various learning objectives, so it is better to administer it late in the quarter. EvCC allows for evaluations beginning the 5th week of the quarter, but doing it the 8th week or so permits the students to have made more progress.

DO NOT administer the surveys on the same day as the final or any other big tests or presentation. Students will be preoccupied on these days and it will be difficult to concentrate on conscientious completion of the ratings survey.

The IDEA Center also does not recommend administering the survey at the end of class when students are beginning to focus more on getting out the door. It is better to do it at the beginning of the class session.

Basically, you want your students to be thoughtful in their ratings, not rushed or bothered. Be mindful of things under your control that could diminish thoughtful responses.

Can I add my own questions?

All you have to do is print copies of the questions you create for your class and have those sheets passed out to students along with the IDEA Student Form.

Multiple-choice questions

The students may respond to up to 20 additional questions on the IDEA form itself. The text of the questions needs to be on a separate sheet.

The numbering of your questions should begin with 48.

There is room for 5 response options. When writing out the response options, please use numbers (1) – (5), NOT letters. The responses on the students’ IDEA forms are numbered.

Retain a copy of the questions and response options for yourself, but you do not need to turn a copy in with your forms. Your results report will simply show how many students selected response 1 for question 48, how many selected response 2, etc. You will need to refer to you copy of the questions to understand how the students responded.

Open-ended questions

If students write out answers to additional questions on separate sheets, those sheet may be turned in with the completed IDEA forms. The sheets will be held in the Institutional Research Office and returned to you with your results report.

Something happened while my students were filling out the forms...

Was there a vocal student trying to influence others' responses?

Did students run out of time and feel rushed?

The IDEA center recommends that any situation that leads to a less than ideal environment for the students filling out the forms be documented and included as part of the result. Please let someone in your division office know if there was any sort of problem that you would like taken into account when your results are reviewed.

(The ideal environment is one that allows the students to be thoughtful and free of distractions while completing the forms.)

Were students grumpy because they filled out the forms on the same day as the final?

Yes, this can happen! The official word from the IDEA Center is - do not administer your evaluation on the same day as the final, or even on the last day of class before the final. Such close proximity to the final does have the potential to negatively skew your results. Other big tests and presentations could have a similar negative effect due to student preoccupation with the test. Be mindful of things under your control that could diminish thoughtful responses.